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Austin Ranks #4 in America’s Worst Commutes

According to a recent study by The Daily Beast and traffic services company INRIX, Austin has the fourth worst commute in the nation. They discovered that commuters experience most of this frustration on I-35 with the worst bottleneck being Northbound around Riverside Drive.

Kara Kockelman, professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering and UT traffic expert, attributes heavy traffic on the downtown portion of I-35 to a combination of geography and design.
“It’s very unusual to have a major travel corridor interstate that close to the heart of a significant metro region,” Kockelman said.
The Texas Triangle, encompassing Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, is a heavily traveled region. When combined with downtown rush-hour traffic, conditions throughout the five metro areas can be disastrous, she said.